Listener 4066

[Ruthrobin]

A very happy Christmas - where are you all? This was an exciting grid fill with lots of alcohol and Christmas goodies and I am delighted, though reeling and rather bemused, about what we are required to do now!

[Patch49]

As the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, about the final form of this puzzle, please can someone explain how you knew that manipulation was required? If you don't want to post here, my email is dudgeon at moose hyphen mail dot com (change text to symbols). By the way the *r*n boys used to come to our house in Ireland but I don't remember a corpse!

[foxy33]

Scorpius, I couldn't agree more about the balance in this puzzle. Filling the grid was pretty dull and the paper folding to get the right square in the right place was even more dull. In terms of the folding, go for the simple version. It does work.

[Clamzy]

Patch49 - The "message in the clues" as per the pre-amble, spelled it out loud and clear.

[Clamzy]

Scorpius - the link given by Mysterons earlier in this thread leads to the simplest instruction you are likely to find.
It has the advantage that you can pause the animated sequence at any point and even fumble fingers like me can produce a good enough result. Start with grid in normal orientation.

[Ruthrobin]

Scorpius, I too went down the path of attempting the most appropriate one on the Internet (virtually impossible) - Mysterons' version is infinitely more easy. Don't abandon! I would willingly send a folded one flying to you if I had an address, or send one off to St Albans for you ([email protected]).

[Jogler]

I have just posted my New Year greeting and yippee on Pilbrow's concoction and am about to download Rentokil. Seeing 3 pages of comments already stacked up here does not fill me with warm and fuzzies but I am steadfastly going to steer clear of them for the first hour or so!

[Speravi]

Going back to Clamzy's question, there are four or five submissions that I've made that I know were incorrect (no doubt there were others), and I've made submissions for all - except last week's (4065), where I have 15 of the 17 clues cold-solved (but not the key 16-letter one) and not a single entry. It will be no surprise then, given my earlier comment on this puzzle, that I've found the last two of the year the least satisfying. My favourites have been 4018 (In Clue Order, On and On) by Loda, 4024 (An Additional Symmetry) by Waterloo, and 4028 (Indication of Height) by Mr E.

It's probably presumptuous of me to give this personal view, but I thought this was a good, rather than vintage year, with the Inquisitor series in the Independent Saturday Magazine often close behind, and with the Sunday Telegraph EV series being too inconsistent to be a challenge to the Listener (despite occasional brilliance).

Finally, I understand that Kea is the new first vetter so thanks to him for taking on that onerous task, and. of course, to John Green and the editors, without whom...

[JackDeCrow]

Am also in the "sent them all in but didn't check the answers" camp. So what with the inevitable error, the holiday in France in the Summer and the postal strike, I'd be very suprised to end up with full marks. This is the first (and possibly only!) year I've pursued this elusive goal and I'm not sure I can take the pressure again. But can anyone tell me how you actually find out if you did get them all right?

[perseverer]

JachDeCrow - go to the Listener site listenercrossword.com and follow the link to statistics which will tell you the information that becomes available, several months into the New Year. When you see this material, you really realise, if you didn't know already, the amount of effort John Green puts in.

[Clamzy]

Jack - The first Listener published after the Annual Dinner (usually in March) will carry a note inviting solvers to send a suitable S.A.E. to JG for their personal statistics. They are very detailed and revealing, showing which puzzles you got wrong and why. An amazing (free) personal service for each of around 2000 solvers.

[Cruncher]

JackdeCrow - I think if you are actually all correct you will find out fairly soon, some time in January I would think, as you'll be on the invite list for the annual dinner. Fingers crossed for you!

[Scorpius]

Thanks to all those who encoraged me to presevere. I have managed to produce 2 birds, neither of which satisfies instructions. The first one had the wrong cell for the head and didn't display the item to highlight. The second had the head correct, but the correct first letters for the thematic item were paired with 2 others that weren't right. I'll give it a few more shots, but I've spent too long on it already. I've now asked about 20 friends whether they can produce an origami bird and all have admitted total failure, so at least I'm not alone in my ineptitude.

Happy New Year to all.

[Mysterons]

Thanks everyone, and a Very Happy New Year to You All.

Scorpius - it does work perfectly, provided you start with the grid face up and the 'head' in the top RIGHT corner, ie with the grid rotated through 90 degrees. Follow the instructions exactly and you will find the word to be highlighted in the location I Playfair-encoded above.

[jacinth]

I found this OK, but agree the grid fill was perhaps a little too easy.
My New Year's resolution is to start these a little earlier!
Happy New Year to all.